Quotes from John Abizaid

Everybody needs to understand that I learned Arabic from the United States Army as a second language. I never spoke it at home.

I think you also understand that one of the key things that's got to be done in Iraq is to build a mentality of understanding that the military needs to be subordinate to civilian control and respectful of its own people.

Undoubtedly, there are members of the former regime that are cooperating in some fashion and then there are extremists that are within Iraq that are cooperating with them.

We'll try to include Iraqi officers in our staffs. We will do everything we can to empower Iraqi security forces to stand up on their own and operate where they can alone.

As far as Zarqawi is concerned, there is a network of extremists; it's not just Zarqawi.

And so I think that if the person has the funds, the network, and the equipment to do this, and also the experience, which is the key factor, then they can be quite deadly.

You don't build a new power plant in the United States overnight. It takes years to build.

It's also natural in that part of the world to blame what people view as the... as the most important authority in the region, and that currently is the United States of America.

But the key shift in focus will be from counter-insurgency operations to more and more cooperation with Iraqi security forces and to building Iraqi security capacity.

Capturing any member of any terrorist cell or any insurgent cell that we may happen to come across is always very, very valuable, and the thing that interests me is that in most instances after a time, people talk and they tell us what they know.

I think what actually works best is local-level individual targeting of key leadership nodes.

I think you will see a lot of strains develop in the political process that will result in violence everywhere in the country - but it's controllable, it's workable and it will lead to a much better future for these people.

So, these political activities will create friction in and of themselves, and in this environment of friction there'll be additional violence.

Morale is good; troops are confident; leaders are capable.